Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 23:47:18 +0000
From: Michael Offutt
Subject: Wraith Chapter Eleven - Gay Science Fiction
This story is protected under international and Pan-American copyright
conventions.
Author's Note: On my website, I have included a picture of Jordan in the
gif image. Please validate me with an email if you agree that he's cute
:). You'll also find a link to a blog post I wrote on Kolin and killsuits
right under the blurb. This blog post includes a sexy picture of Kolin
modeling in his armor. :)
"Wraith" uses the main characters featured in the science-fiction novel
"Slipstream", but is its own story that I will post in its entirety on
Nifty. Both of these tales are based on the events established in the
short story, "The Insanity of Zero." If you like Jordan, Kathy, and Kolin,
please consider giving "Slipstream" a read. I promise, the plot is a whole
lot better than "Wraith." If you are a reviewer for Amazon, Barnes and
Noble, Fictionwise, or would just like to talk about my stories on your
blog, please contact me for a complimentary e-copy of "Slipstream" in .pdf
format.
Here is my author information:
Website: http://slckismet.blogspot.com/p/books.html
Email: kavrik@hotmail.com
Twitter: @MichaelOffutt
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slipstream/164452693676933
*****
Chapter Eleven
He strode into a hotel kitchen as austere as the hall they'd just
abandoned.
Fluorescent lights pumped color draining illumination onto every
surface. A quick glance around the room revealed two deep stainless steel
sinks, some wooden cabinets against the north wall, and a floor comprised
mostly of finished concrete marred by unseemly stains.
Blood.
They traced a path to a drain under a worktable complete with a
gleaming stainless steel top. A mechanical whir sounded from an
operational lift on the southern end of the room, probably used by the
serving staff of the hotel. Kathy stood motionless waiting for him.
Directly across from her was a huge Sub-Zero freezer with a digital LCD
panel on the left. It displayed minus two degrees Celsius.
Jordan walked over to the freezer, unlocked it, and yanked on the
chrome handle. Heavy mist and cold air spilled into the room.
Dense frost covered everything inside the freezer. The three walls
held steel shelves with boxes, canisters, and jugs, some of which contained
human body parts.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Kathy said when she discovered a
severed head.
Jordan looked around in the fog.
The ice seemed to have taken on a life of its own much like kudzu did
in the South. It flowed over shelves and along the floor like an obnoxious
white vine. Then he spotted Kolin. The Brit lay in the middle of the
floor, still bound and tied, and curled into a ball in an attempt to stay
warm.
Jordan felt his heart leap into his throat as he stared at his
friend's completely motionless body. The visible skin of Kolin's face and
neck had turned white as new snow, and the pallor made Jordan think that
he'd arrived too late to save him. Bracing for the worst, he walked over
to him, crouched and gently rolled his head in his hands. Kolin's face and
hair was covered in dried blood and his eyes remained closed, but he still
breathed. Ice had just started to form in his hair. Kolin had not been
here for more than a couple of minutes.
"Thank you," Jordan said, turning his eyes to heaven.
"Oh my God, Jordy...this is ice cream."
"You're thinking about food?" He asked, looking back at her.
Kathy busied herself by knocking ice off of the tops of cartons.
"Rocky Road, Vanilla Bean, Chocolate," she said reading the labels. Then
she looked back at him. "Yes, I am. Somebody has to. In case you're not
up on current events, the three of us are starving."
Jordan turned his attention back to Kolin and carefully slid his
hands under the young Brit's back, cradling him so that his head had
support against his chest. After sliding him thus, he surmised that Kolin
probably weighed in the 180-pound range with his body armor on. He could
carry this easily.
While he was occupied, his sister looked around and found a nylon bag
under a table next to the sinks. She threw in a couple of utensils she
found in a drawer labeled "silverware," and then went back into the freezer
and tossed in a few pints of ice cream, some frozen vegetables, and a
couple of loaves of frozen bread.
"I'm leaving the meat. No telling what it is," Kathy said.
Jordan gripped Kolin under the knees with his left arm, held his neck
on his right, and scooped him up.
"Do you need help?" Kathy asked him.
"No. He's pretty light actually."
Kathy led the way. She popped open the service door to have a look
outside. She held up her right hand, "We've got company. Ten cars have
pulled up. The occupants are mostly women," she stated flatly. "Let me
revise that. Some are women, others...not so much. Ugh."
"Why's that?"
"Well for one, they all have a distended belly, as if pregnant, but
they look sickly and diseased. One woman has open sores on her arms. If I
didn't know any better, I'd think she was dead. They have some human men
with them. Not many though. Maybe one for every two cars. They don't
look like they're prisoners-maybe they're Wraith's men."
"They're probably the fathers of those babies. I get the impression
that men supply a necessary component in the monster's breeding program out
here in the Waste."
Kathy shook her head. "Jordy, that's just disgusting." She pinched
her eyes shut. "Boys are so pretty-now you've seared some unpleasant
images on my mind. They shouldn't be used like that."
"I agree that some boys are pretty," Jordan said, hanging his head to
one side.
She combed Kolin's hair with her fingers and looked at her brother.
"Yeah."
"The women, they must be the Cihuateteo. The voices earlier
indicated that they'd be showing up very soon. I've no idea what the name
means but it sounds Mesoamerican."
Kathy ground her teeth together in thought and then looked past the
door and along the receiving dock. "If we go out this way we're going to
get caught."
"Where are they all going?"
"Difficult to say. They actually aren't coming toward this entrance
but heading into the front of the hotel where the lobby is."
Jordan heard faint screams on the wind.
"Okay, that was bloodcurdling," she stated.
"Is anyone looking this way?"
Kathy moved her eyes over the small crowd outside. "No. Not at
present at least. We also have some cover from the truck. We could walk
across the dock here and over to another pair of doors. There's a sign on
the left and I think it says that if we go that way, we'll end up in the
Millennium Spa." She paused a moment to point out her plan to him. "It
looks like there's some kind of electronic key entry there. She turned
back to him, "Do you think you could get the code?"
Jordan looked at her not knowing exactly how to answer that question.
"All I can do is try, right?"
She nodded and then swung the door open carefully and stepped out,
holding it open for him. Jordan walked out with Kolin in his arms and
tried to keep to the shadows. There were more and more vehicles showing up
all the time and in the distance, beyond the buildings, he could hear
barking and howling, and the cacophony of clattering steel. It was
shocking to see a crowd standing about in front of the entrance to the
hotel where macabre screams could be heard filtering out into the night.
That is, until you realized that the crowd was the monsters. Once at the
door, Jordan focused on the keypad and tried to summon the slipstream.
Surprisingly, it came easy. His power erupted from inside like it
always did, and it spread along the line of his body, filling him with a
cool prickly feeling not unlike the tingle one feels when a limb falls
asleep. He narrowed his vision, staring at the keypad. The ambient light
on the lock grew brighter and dimmer depending on what time of day it was,
and he paged back through time.
A moment later, he saw fingers touching numbers--the last person to
use the electronic lock. He squeezed his eyes shut and the slipstream
dissipated leaving him drained. A sudden, burning pain seared him behind
the retinas, and he almost cried out. He struggled to hold Kolin who
suddenly seemed twice as heavy as he'd been a moment before. Jordan's legs
wobbled, and he dropped down to one knee and cracked his kneecap against
the concrete. Fresh blood welled from his nose.
"What did you see Jordan?" Kathy pressed him. "And please hurry,
there's one of those pregnant monsters coming this way. I think it smells
your blood."
Jordan shook his head, trying to think, trying to remember the
numbers. "Press 4-2-3-8- 7," he stated. "Then hit the green button."
Kathy keyed in the combination and the door unlocked. She pulled it
open and motioned for him to enter. "Quickly," she emphasized.
Though he'd been weakened by the ordeal, he focused on what needed to
be done and hopped to his feet. He carried Kolin across the threshold.
Behind him, Kathy quietly shut the door, sealing them inside a hallway.
Not a moment too soon, the electronic lock turned and snapped shut.
Something tugged at the door from the other side.
Jordan looked down at the unconscious Englishman. His vision blurred
and his head pounded as it usually did after he used the slipstream. He
gently set Kolin down and waited for his eyes to clear. After a few
minutes, Jordan saw that he'd left a smattering of blood droplets on the
concrete. It drew a trail under the outside door from which they'd just
come and he heard pawing and sniffing from the other side.
*****
Chapter Twelve coming soon